TUI's Hapag-Lloyd Stake Drops after CSAV Tie-Up

German travel and tourism company TUI AG's stake in container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd will drop to 13.9 percent following the latter's tie-up with Chilean peer Compania SudAmericana de Vapores.

TUI, which also controls Europe's largest tour operator TUI Travel, currently owns 22 percent in Hapag-Lloyd, but this will drop first to 15 percent as part of the merger and then to 13.9 percent, because TUI will not participate in a planned capital increase.

TUI, which has long planned to exit shipping, will also get priority placement rights for its remaining stake as part of Hapag-Lloyd's planned stock market flotation in 2015, it said in an internal letter, seen by Reuters.

Thee deal between Vapores and Hapag-Lloyd will create the world's fourth-largest container-shipping company.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by David Evans)